In his first fight in over a year, undefeated WBO Middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade retained his title in a unanimous decision victory against Liam Williams. This improves Andrade’s record to 30-0 while Williams drops to 23-3-1.
This was Demetrius Andrade’s fifth defense of his WBO Middleweight title since winning it in October 2018 against Walter Kauntondokwa. This was his first title defense since January 2020 when he beat Luke Keeler by 9th round TKO.
For Liam Williams, this was his first career world title shot and his second fight against a former world champion. Following back-to-back losses to Liam Smith, Williams had been on a seven-fight win streak all coming by knockout. His last time in the ring this past November saw him secure a 1st round knockout win over Andrew Robinson.
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There was a lot of tension coming into this fight with both men throwing verbal jabs during press conferences and getting physical during their faceoff at the pre-fight weigh-in.
Liam Williams began the fight going at Demetrius Andrade aggressively looking to take the fight to him. However, he got caught with a big shot and looked to be struggling to keep his legs under him but remained on his feet. It was in the second round that Andrade was able to drop Williams with a one-two punch combination but Williams got off the canvas and continued to remain aggressive.
Demetrius Andrade was able to have great success landing clean punches through the guard on Liam Williams namely with his uppercut. Meanwhile, Williams had some of his own success, landing good shots and dictating the style of the fight.
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Both men were holding often and at times refuse to break when the referee looked to pull them apart. The referee had to give both fighters numerous warnings about infractions they were committing throughout.
At the end of the fight, both fighters showed each other mutual respect with Andrade saying Williams was “tough” and Williams saying Andrade was “better than he thought he was going to be.”